Technological advancements in all fields, such as agriculture, manufacturing transportion, communication, require energy. To date, mankind has relied heavily on coal, hydrocarbon, and nuclear materials to generate energy and power for these advancements.
These conventional methods of generating electricity have deleterious effects. For instance, burning of coal and hydrocarbon release toxic and greenhouse gases into the environment. In addition, mining and collection of the coal and hydrocarbon greatly damage the environment, as well as require other natural resources, such as water, in the operation. While nuclear energy does not produce these deleterious effects, it is not without shortcomings. Nuclear energy produces nuclear wastes, which can be significantly dangerous if released due to human error or natural disasters. Further, due to the potential harm caused by the nuclear wastes, nuclear plants are often located in an isolated area, which can pose a challenge for distribution of the electricity.
Current methods to harvest geothermal energy address some of the issues of other conventional methods of generating energy. However, current methods of harvesting geothermal energy also have disadvantages. For instance, they often require injecting water into the earth to absorb the thermal energy and recover the heated water to surface to collect that energy. This often leaches significant amounts of minerals and other toxic substances from the subterranean environment during the energy collection operations. As such, there is still a need for methods and apparatuses that generate clean and renewable energy without consuming other natural resources or posing significant risks of releasing harmful material into the environment during a disaster.